Leaving a trail

On our walk this morning, mine and Iggy's footprints were the only marks on our walk. The earth down here by the Lake, got a powder sugar dusting. I am fascinated by chocolate cakes that have had a paper doily laid on it and powder sugar sprinkled to make a fancy lace design. That is how beautiful it is today. It is still snowing gently and pretty. As I was walking I stayed right in the middle of the sidewalks...and would look back without turning my feet to see where I was. I checked out my footprint and what I left behind. Sometimes I had Iggy prints with me and other times they were gone when he was running in the grass. It made me think, what will I leave behind? What will we be remembered for??? I used to tell my mom, when I was raising my son, no one will say, Oh she was such a good housekeeper, I wanted them to say "Oh she was such a good mom". With that job behind me, for the most part, I wonder. I really think it would be fun to have a Memorial service for your death, before you die. Then people can say what they would to you not your corpse. How would you be perceived on this Earth??? I know I am not a follower, I am a leader, but I don't like the lead. I like to veer off on my own, don't follow me I don't want that responsibility, do your own thing....always think "what is the worst thing that can happen if i do this??" Will you die?? If you pick a color of something that is out of your box, will it kill you to use it? No worst case scenario is you rip it out??? When making some choices I see some people labor over their decision, almost to a point of a headache.....this takes all of the fun out of life. Grab and go!!!!! When I take a class and they have all of these supplies, I quickly grab what I don't normally like, it forces me to be creative and step out of the box. Using what I like is easy, using something I don't makes me think....you may be completely surprised by the turnout, or you may hate it, so what. I have bought things impulsively only to hate it???? It didn't kill me I'm still here!!! So do one thing today that is daring....make a trail...

To go cups

I have a real problem drinking coffee out of a to go cup. By that I mean cheap or expensive, paper or stainless steel. Seems I gulp air for fear of hitting a bump, I tend to slurp, which means I get lots of air. So the harder I think about not choking the worse it gets. So I look for a seemingly flat part of the road and bring the cup to my lips I keep tipping the cup to get fluid into my mouth, so I inhale and into my lungs I take coffee...I asperate coffee....into my lungs and start to choke, so I cough and then out comes this huge burp, I guess I am also sucking in air. I remember being in the back seat of my brothers car and taking a drink of coffee and inhaling it and choking and then this huge burp comes out to prevent me from dying. I was really embarrassed. My brother starts to laugh so hard and told me it just happened to him the other day???? Is this hereditary??? I guess I suck it in so it doesn't end up coming around my mouth down the front of me??? I just kind of avoid drinking coffee in the car, I think if straws could withstand the heat I could use one of those???

Happy Birthday Scott

I love my brother!!! We still laugh at stupid stuff, I mean we really laugh hard, crying and asthma attack laughing. Our jaws hurt and what we are laughing at is some stupid thing. I love that about him. I love how talented is his, he doesn't use his talents enough, but he is talented. I dislike the way he thinks, because someone years ago told him he was stupid, he thinks he was, or that he was a trouble maker. He was a typical kid, I was probably worse than he was, I just didn't get caught. My brother is fair and although he rants about everything, he is very caring for a guy.
I was really mean to him growing up, I attribute it to toughening him up...eh...He is 5 years younger than me and we got along great. No one could or would touch my brother or I would beat them up, reason was he was my personal whipping boy. It's not the I whooped on him as much as I tortured him. He was a whiner so I gave him something to whine about. I put worms in his ears, I would tie him up like a cow, cow rangling, , remember I was a cowboy. If he ever wanted to get me back he could do it now, but he doesn't. We talk often, and we laugh more. We live close enough to get together for dinner or a movie. I love him very much, Happy Birthday Scott
I cannot believe I got him to let me take a picture of him with a fishing net over his head...it must have been a weak moment!!!

Long time coming

I finally, finally finished mixing the dyes I have been wanting to mix, for hhhhmmmmm the last six months. I have some dying ideas. I want to do, just small little ditties. So I heat the water in a little electric water heater, and for some odd reason, I kept mopping up water where I was working, oh sure the whole bottom fell out of my little teapot!!! As I pick it up sparks start flying and I hate electricity, so quick pull the plug with the cord from across the room. My dad hated when I did that...I left a plug in the wall once and the cord was in my hand....opps. So I had to use a smaller water heater, but I got it all done. All of my colors are mixed....tomorrow, I can dye. Such simple pleasures. So when I go in the basement now, the Igster has a new trick, he rings the buzzer by the shop door. I know, no one is there the door is locked. I holler up "who's there?" Who is it? and he barks, like saying "It's me!!! twice he has done this now then goes and lays down....what a brat. I think I feel a nice Sunday afternoon nap coming!!!! Oh yeah....

Under the gun and under the treddle

I am making Art yarn that has to be done by the first week in February. I have most of it sorted out and ideas and now I have to spin. So today was designated to spinning. I am nursing a sore forearm in a weird spot the bottom of my arm...I think knitting endlessly kills me....It hurts when I touch it so, I don't touch it. So I am spinning and watching the Vikqueens beat the tar out of the Cowboys, never in my life did I ever think I would root for the Cowboys but Tony Romo is a hometown boy and Favre is an arse...(great quarterback but a self centered jerk) anyway. I am spinning along fine and Iggy wakes up to realize I am doing something he could get into the action of. So he finds his little ball and I throw it a little and he brings it back and pushes it under the treddle and looks at me. New Game mom???? So I tip the wheel push the ball out and he takes his nose and pushes it under the treddle again, he waits for the right time and with the littlest shove under it goes...I tip the wheel and push it out and so on and so forth. I finally did finish the skein and then when I started to wind it on to the niddy noddy, he sits pretty and jumps at the yarn...oh no this is not a game. Now he is sleeping.....Thursday he gets a poop test and I will be at daycare Friday (if he is over his STD sniffing transmitted disease) when the doors open, he needs a playpal!!!!! He is bored with me....

Just a few notes

Why is it, when the remote doesn't work the first time you push the button, you push harder, again and again???? LOl
Second, What kind of example are these sports figures setting when they can commit a crime, finish out the season and continue to go along their money making ways. This is what I would include in their contract, this would solve any crap police problems.
"If you are involved in any behavior unbecoming of an upstanding citizen, this would mean any unlawful ANY unlawful behavior your contract will be null and void....you will not be compensated you will not get severance, where you think you are good there is a young player, with the will to do good waiting to get his/her chance. This includes, spouse beating/ drugs/ guns ....you know read the rules any unlawful conduct. Now I know woman throw themselves at you and may call wolf, keep away from that kind of tramp. If in fact you do get into a situation that is questionable you receive back pay from the injustice done to you and he/she will serve the sentence you would have.
If you are not allowed to be on a sport team in highschool and do drugs and drink, why should it be allowed at the level these players are at???? Get rid of them
Oh yeah flashing guns in the locker room is unlawful....I don't care who you are....You're fired!!!!
Let's call it Career ending behavior...

I had a dream

Today is Martin Luther Kings birthday, but my dream and I don't dream often was a really weird one. I have been going for mammograms for umpteen years and I never consider it painful or anything, worst part is worrying that my pits will stink in the 1/2 hour, I go from home to the appt. My only concern about the mammo was I forgot when the appt. was and had to call, but other than that, not a worry.....Well last night I had a dream that when I looked in the mirror, my nipples were huge, oh I'm talking from the middle of my boob to my neck, dark and oblong and totally taking on a life of their own?? Now what could huge enormous nipples be translated into??? I woke up and went to the mirror the same mirror I might add that I saw them huge...whew, they were OK, normal...well as normal as 56 year old nipples are.

I am an addict!!!

And my friend is the enabler....yes, I am here to confess, that Happy Hands yarn has caused a major addiction for me. She has been dying this silk yarn and she brought a few new colors in. Ok so I have one project, an entrelac cowl that I made using it double. done, hear that?, it is done and has been done, it is a store sample. Hear that? done, so now she brought new colors a black to shades of gray to white colorway called Silver Fox, well I had to wind a ball of that and started a new project...I am almost over half way done....hear that? since Saturday. It looks so beautiful, but if you touch it warning!!!! Warning red lights and alarms are flashing in your head..the touch is supreme, and the drape is to die for. So the scarf I am working on is a free pattern from Knitty.com called Ripple, it is a fun entrelac band and you will pick up and add the ruffley part in the end. You have all of these live stitches on the needle and you just keep building on these blocks....OOOhhhhh baby....I am in touchy heaven.
Thank you Kim for helping me eat up the profit in my shop by winding a ball of every color and stashing it so no one else can have any. Thank you for bringing in a new color or talking about it....you are evil and adding to my addiction....do you know that? Do you know I am shoving this yarn in bins under the displays....behind the counter and when someone says "what about that skein there?" I say "what skein" Oh that one is sold....sorry!!! So if you find Silk Merino yarn stashed in places it shouldn't be....remember I am addicted!!!!! But again warning if you touch it, you probably will take it home with you....welcome to my new addiction.

I just got through spinning some new yarn too. I did a yarn from the button box, and grandma's doilies and odds and ends of things that I have treasured through the years...this one is mine and it is knit up into a scarf of ewenique character!!! My style. I am working on a Spring branch yarn and super coils is done!!! So I have been doing stuff, just not cleaning, cooking, washing clothes...playing is way more fun and creating takes time and then it is tiring and I need a nap. My house looks a little upset but it is a busy house!!! right???

We are quaranteened

The Vet called today after Iggy had all his shots and poop check and heartworm and I deposited a fair amount of money. They take credit cards and payments, which is a little scary if you ask me. They are not shy about charging, so anyway, he got two shots in his hiney and the next day he went to the Groomer where it dawned on me, I pay three times more for his haircut than I pay?????? I got a call from the Vet and Iggy's Poop is showing Guardia???? This of course is a new one to me and being that he has not shown symptoms of the infection, I had no reason to even think he may be sick. How do you get Guardai....you get too close to infected poop and dogs love to sniff poop, they are even great at eating rabbit poop and that can be infected too.... They stress that dog owners pick up their poop to stop spreading this infection...We get a lot of sniffing poop on our walks....so no more daycare till he is better. Medicine two different ones two times a day and in two weeks we get another poop test. So one is injected with a syringe into the dogs mouth, sounds good, but I can show you it is all over my floor and my shirt and carpet....as I was pushing it into his mouth it ricochet out and over my shoulder and so on....the pill which is 3/4's of a pill...yeah, so I had to buy a pill cutter...that I roll up in lunch meat and it is gone....but this liquid will take some getting used to....Two weeks on no daycare....oh help me....

Nostalgia

Nostalgia strikes....when I was a kid, and my mom would be sewing us designer outfits, (clown suits) she would keep me busy, by searching in the button box for six of this one kind of button. The button box and I know everyone had one, was a Christmas Cookie tin, which I found out, later in life, that all tins were not button boxes and that the primary use of a tin was for cookies. The box was full of a variety of buttons, snaps, hooks and eyes and religious medals? My mom was a great recycler, her Idea of recycling clothing was to cut off the buttons, rip out the zippers and then give them to some collection agency. I am sure the person that got that shirt with no buttons was thrilled with the generousity of some person much better off than they were and had great Christian values??? I think my mom learned this from her mom and it is a tradition that I broke. So I would open the button box and lean on her bed, and pick through the buttons. In those days we didn't have "sewing rooms, family rooms and two bathrooms, we were lucky to have a bedroom and that was shared with however many kids were in the family, so my mom had her sewing machine in their bedroom. I leaned on the bed and would hunt for the special button, it was like a treasure hunt. I would give my mom, a play by play..."Oh I found another one that looks kind of like this one but only has two holes instead of four and it has thread hanging from it and piece of cloth and it may be a little smaller and ......." then silence and the sound of the digging deeper for another button, just like the one she needed. I was on a mission, my mom "Needed" this button...I had a job...."hey mom, can I dump out the button box?" Oh no, you can't do that!!!! It is too hard to get them back into the box? really???? This little game went on for what seemed like forever. Little did I know, she kept me out of her hair and busy finding some dumb ass button that she didn't need and never used any buttons I searched for with my "Eagle eyes"....LOL Well when we cleaned my mom's house out to move, she told me about a white trash bag of buttons...where is the tin??? I have no idea why you would not throw the whole thing out but she found it more convenient to put the buttons in a trash bag and let me know about it?? Don't ask! So yesterday I had an urge to find some old buttons for a project and remembered the bag....wow, what a trip down memory lane. I found all the treasures I would dig through for hours....I remember playing with a few select buttons that I thought were just precious and rare and wow, good thing tastes change....There was one special button and I actually thought there were two but found only one that I called Saturn.....what I remember was a red bead with a sparkly gold ring around it, I guess I imagined the ring swirling around the bead and lights flashing....hey I had a great imagination.....but I recognized it when I saw it....that single button was in the button box for at least 50 years.....and now I am going to give it a home...it is going to be used for a project....and you know what .....it is really kind of ugly!!!!!!!! Tragic report....as I was arranging the buttons for a photo, the bead came unglued, how lucky I am that it didn't fall out while in the trash bag or I would never have recognized it, maybe it did have a mate but is in the trash bag....it's the little things in life....

The Peecycle

I think I got more comments on the peecycle than any other post. Well it doesn't stop there. Here is the whole story. I have a deck that is 18' x 16'. My car is parked under what would be about half of that. My windsheild is about 5' by 3'. My side of the windshield or the drivers side is half of that.....so now how on the earth, could he out of all that area to pee, pee right down the middle of my vision spot????? So I took him to daycare and waited till the car was warm, which is never, it is so darned cold out and tried to wash the pee stream off of the window....no washer juice or it's frozen?? So I just smeared a bunch of it around with the road salt dirt and the stream is still there. I park and forget about it, till I have to leave again later. I am in a parking lot throwing snow on it, and the sun is shining brightly, I turn on the wipers and that pee stream is stuck in one long line.....but the windsheild is clean around it.....as soon as Spring comes, I will take my car to the carwash, so it doesn't freeze up.
Yesterday I was putting a flat cut out, Christmas Countdown display into it's original box and I got a pain in my back like I have never felt. I didn't know if I should move or stand still. I opted to try moving seeing as though no one would find me in the basement if I didn't move. It burned really bad but I thought I better keep moving, then I decided I better go pick up Iggy from daycare and driving hurt really bad. After driving in the dark looking through the pee stream, I got home and iced my back, it was frozen till about 2pm and I almost went to the ER....it hurt so bad, I finally found a spot that must have allowed me to sleep. I have determined it is my left lower back and it felt good this morning till I got out of bed...not really I think this is going to be a baby it for a while and it will be better, it hurts to sit too long, stand too long.......live too long....this is giving me a taste of what so many people live with chronic back pain....I am so lucky, I need to find some drugs.......LOL

Let's pretend

When was the last time you used those words??? I loved to pretend....now I call it Imagine. But i used to pretend all the time, pretend and play were my two favorite things. Pretend was for us kids that didn't have expensive toys, it made us use our imagination. Some of my friends had Barbie Model homes, with a kitchen and living room, I had a little black stool with yellow formica top that my dad made for us and when you turned it on it's side it had a cross brace that turned into a Barbie kitchen counter and a rolled up rag rug that was Barbie and Ken's couch, it was a 32" long couch but it could be shared with my brothers GI Joe and Midge. I used to pretend I had a horse, a painted pony none the less, because I saw an Indian movie with a painted pony and so that was the horse for me, I would ride it all over by galloping and holding the fake reins in my hands...a little slap on the butt made it go faster too. One kind of rainy day we made mud/sand pies in our sand box/restaurant, with a board over our laps. Now I pretend my house work gets done, I pretend all sorts of scenarios, we don't call it pretend when we get older, we call it Imagine....and that's not a bad thing either.
I finally convinced the Igster to pee on the snow covered deck yesterday, finally at least once, it's his afternoon pee. This morning I went to start the car and I have a pee stream frozen down my drivers side windshield, (my deck is above my car) I think I heard him chuckle a little.....I can't win?

Good bye Margarita Maker

Oh oh, will someone please remove the remote from my bedroom??? Will someone please, make me quit lusting for a damn slushy machine? I went to bed tired, fell asleep and then started tossing and turning so I decided to turn on TV...cruising through the stations, where do I end up ....QVC? Top ten kitchen gadgets, oh the hook is set, can I get some more false hope that I will be a good cook? But if I have this new and improved Vita mixer, it replaces 10 different kitchen counter clutters....but I am in love with my Magic Bullet (blender). But this vita mixer can make slushys, ice cream, hot soup, and oh so much more...it is healthy it can make smoothies....healthy smoothies.....OMG, my phone is plugged in on my dresser, hey it's free shipping and it comes with a $30 smoothie cup...OK I can do without that but....the announcer says the kiss of death words....it is 22" tall? huh? Are you kidding me the Margerita machine is like 28??? This is the deal breaker, I actually get up, turn on the lights and go measure my counter..won't fit and we all know if it goes under the counter it won't get used!!!!! So with all of my rationalization and my great desire to have a ice chopper....I did not, I repeat did not buy the Vitamixer....not that it isn't still on my list of ideas to squash....something to think about, but maybe I ought to think more about taxes??????

Faith restored

I know, I know, two blogs in one day, can you tell I have had too much coffee. I have been a little upset about a missing knit kit from the shop. I searched and figured it must have gone to the shoplifted fish mitten hell. I have one very good customer that actually bought one of the knit kits from me and she had been there for a class and thought just maybe, maybe she accidentally picked it up thinking it was hers and took it home. I had actually hoped that, that was the situation because theft makes me ill. Now how to approach asking is an uncomfortable situation, but I know her and she is sweet and nice and hey it happens, so I did. She went home and dug around in her bag and like all of us, and our bags, we can understand the junk we can accumulate in one's bags. She didn't find it....I went back to being violated, well that is a strong word but, upset none the less, how could someone just take it, how could they steal it?????
TADA
Last night I get a call, it is after hours, so I let it go to voicemail!!! Hi Jan....? Guess what I found??? Turns out she couldn't find her knit kit either and began searching and the two knit kits were mingling in a separate bag, together, probably laughing at the both of us....comparing clickers or tape measures, hiding snuggly in a knitting bag. So the knit kit will be home soon, turns out it was just on vacation, away from prodding hands, testing it out and pulling the tape measure, prying open it's backside, clicking the counter.....ha vacation is over baby, you're coming home....no more bag jumping!!! Being that all of these little kits look alike, we are now planning on putting stickers on them so we know which one is ours and which one is a bag jumper!!!! So warning, I have a wayward knit kit that may jump into your bag, I will put a return address on him and if by chance he jumps into your bag, looking for a getaway, you will know he is destined to be mauled by many at the shop, please return him, no questions asked, he is just that way!!!!! LOL

Moms

I can never bring up a topic about my mom, that people my age don't go OMG, I know exactly what you are saying. I am sure our children will be doing and saying the same things. At Christmas this year and every occasion that the family is together, "she needs an audience" she looks at me and says about my nose stud...."Is that a zit??" and I always reply I wish my zits sparkled??? She never fails to mention it, but only with an audience. Old Ladies love curly hair, I don't know what my mother's fascination with curly hair is but she would love nothing more than for me to have a fuzzy perm, like the days of old. My hair has always been stick straight unless of course you go back to the days my mother would wrap them in rags and it took two days for it to dry and then these ringlet locks would trail down my back and other old ladies would ogle my perfectly curled ringlets. Of course I looked like Shirley Temple and who didn't want to look like her. So now in these days of menopause, one strip of my hair got curly, in the back underneath??? This was one of the reason I chopped off my long hair...what do you do with a strip of curly hair, that looked like someone shoved crinkle fries around my collar? So off it came. I also use a CPap machine, this helps me breath at night because like a zillion other people I have sleep apnea and stop breathing more times in a second than seems possible but it does help. Believe me the first time I sat on the edge of the bed, looking at my reflection in the window, strapping on my headgear, it became very evident my days of wild sexual sleepovers was pretty much a thing of the past, not that I was actively thinking of it, but it assured me those days were over. So where I am going with this is my mask, has a band that goes around the back of my head, causing a little kink in my hair sometimes. I'll be darned if my mom doesn't see that every time and say..."Oh look what pretty curl you are getting in your hair????" So now we have two things to discuss, no it is not a zit and the curl is from my head gear mom.....I won't even mention that she makes the comment "Is that thing there (my tattoo) fading???? No mom my skin is dry as I lick it and the color pops....Happy New Year!!!!!

Turning a new leaf

With the New Year brings new things. Change is good, sometimes change makes us nervous and unsettled but it keeps us on our toes. In order to keep up with technology we have to change we are forced into it and we have two options...embrace it or fight it. I am learning that, not only is technology something that changes on a regular basis but so does business. Business is an ever revolving door, bringing in the new and saying goodbye to the old. Upgrading and moving in different directions, it is a constant change, to keep abreast of the new and always looking for the different. I so appreciate the customers that keep me moving in new directions and when they find something they will send me links and ideas. As we move into a New Year, look forward to change....New friends new experiences, new projects. Think of the New things that can impact your life. Step into a new pair of shoes and throw out the old ones, the comfy ones. I am looking forward to January 1, 2010!!! New ideas, new rules, new projects, moving in a new direction, better and always improving. Shedding the old boring and predictable, stepping out, leaving the old to settle in the dust. A rut is a bad thing to get into, think of something new you can do? A new project? Something you have never done.....learn to spin? Learn to knit?....Learn to felt...Learn to do something.....Learn to expand you horizons.....as I always say, " what is the worst that can happen to you???? You die???? and who has died from doing something new??? who has died from learning to make socks??? LOL...Let's turn over a new leaf....not a stupid New Years resolution, but a new you....just a little...a new change of some sort....expanding your life, just a bit....and one step at a time will make a difference in each of us...I am excited to ring in 2010.....step out of the old and into the new.....!!!!

I think my hearing is bad???

On one note, I am feeling a little better, in the evening??? Most of the time people feel worse at night but not me, I feel better??? So I had to leave the house, for a few minutes anyway and took to the snow covered roads for take out somewhere. While I'm driving the radio is advertising some kind of Lighthouse keeping? hhhhmmm that is a weird ad?? Yeah that is what I heard, it was light housekeeping for an elderly housing ad. It made me laugh and think of my brother, he was watching the news and Sally Severson and another woman were discussing the Labor day activities and the BBQs going on all over town and the woman looks at Sally and says, "I can't wait to get some of that chicken salad", so my brother starts questioning "Chicken Salad, who said anything about chicken salad and chicken salad this and that and my SIL looked at him and said "Scott, she said "I can't wait to get some of the chicken Sally!!""" I wonder if it runs in the family????

Difference between kids and friends

I am still feeling like crap. Tonight I was supposed to cook dinner for my son and his wife, Indian Tacos, nothing fancy. It would require running a vacuum cleaner over the floor and I really am not up to it. So I make the call to my son, Hi Mike, hey I wanted to give you enough time to get something for dinner, I am just not up to cooking tonight, I still feel like poop. Oh mom that's Ok, I hope you feel better? Love you bye
Now what I dreamed of hearing was
Oh Mom can we run something over to you??? do you need anything?? hahahahahahahahahhha and I know you are laughing too!!!!! That is where friends come in and they are the ones that will say
Can I bring you something??? Are you taking something?? Drink lots of water...do you need soup????

The comfort of friends!!!!

Tradition

My mom is not sentimental and tradition is pretty much not in our family. My father probably did more for tradition than either parent but there is this one dish. My mom got this plate as a present from a neighbor that did ceramics. I loved this plate and knew it was a special occassion when the plate came out. I would run my fingers along the berries, it had ridges on the edge, unlike the usual round plates, and when we washed the dish, it was with special care that I wiped it dry. Some how it got a chip in it, not under my watch, but when I got it, so I used a green marker and covered the white clay from peaking out and ruining the sea of green. Some time ago my mom gave me the plate, it is still my favorite memory of handmade cookies and ribbon candy, a special Christmas memory. I bring the plate out every year and it brings back warm memories with it. It is nothing fancy, and I don't really like dishes, but this one dish has magic in it. I wish you and your families a Very Merry Christmas.

Feeling like dog dodo

When I get sick, I take after my male counterparts, it is pretty devastating. I think it may be because I don't get sick often that it really affects me. I tend to make it more drama than really needs to be, I should just suck it up. This crud that I have is making me dizzy, scary passout dizzy. I cough really hard and then hold on to the chair so I don't pass out. I am thinking it is sinus, because they can do that to you. I have the kids over for Indian Tacos on Christmas eve. Good thing about that is they can help cook. I am not knitting, I am not doing anything but whinning. I have no desire to do anything....but whine. The parties are all over and it goes by so fast. We are once again in for some "weather" as they say in Kansas. Speaking of I am signed up for "Yarn School" once again in Spring, there will be six of us rooming together, it will be a blast. Well I need me some nap!!!!